Downloadable Conditional Access System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:24, 15 June 2006

Revision as of 02:13, 22 July 2006

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'''Downloadable Conditional Access System''' or '''DCAS''' defines a standard for secure software download of a specific Conditional Access client, (computer program) which controls [[Digital Rights Management]] (DRM), into a OCAP-compliant host consumer media device.

The U.S. cable television industry is developing a hardware/software specification called OCAP, the [[OpenCable Application Platform]], which will placeincorporate standard [[Application programming interface|APIs]] insidedirectly theinto host media devices, thus turning them into small computers. DCAS is a component that will eliminate the need for physical [[set-top box]]es or [[CableCARD]]s currently required to protect [[encryption|encrypted]] digital content. OCAP will enable cable companies to write not only security software, but user applications (interactive games, video on demand systems, etc.) that will run on any OCAP-branded hardware. All OCAP-enabled devices will be capable of two-way communication.

The basic purpose of DCAS is to implement DRM protection in software, supported by future OCAP-compliant consumer devices such as [[digital television]]s, [[digital video recorder|DVR]]s, and set-top boxes (still required to support legacy non-OCAP-compliant devices). This secures the information transmitted in the link between the cable company and the consumer device. The subsequent digital link between the device and its external display (if any) would be protected by something such as the existing [[High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection|HDCP]] encryption standard.

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DCAS provides greater security for the cable industry because it allows them to change their entire security structure by downloading new software into host devices. If a particular encryption algorithm is cracked, it can be replaced by another one. Additionally, OCAP-based systemsdevices may incorporate internal support for a kind of "[[smart card]]" (similar to the current [[Subscriber Identity Module|SIM]] chip in a [[Global System for Mobile Communications|GSM]] cell-phone) to identify the subscriber and provide further protection.

== See also ==